Dear family and everyone else, Hey everyone, give a shout out for for my younger sister! She's turning 18 tomorrow and graduating this week with 2 cords! You had a birthday shout hooray. We want to sing to you today. One year older, and wiser too, happy birthday, to you!!! Also, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY EVERYONE! It's the great week of celebrations. Let the summer begin, pop that pop-corn, dip in the pool, turn on the T.V. Because it's cool, and just "Lazy your days."-Enya. As for me and the Modesto Mission, "We serve the Lord." First note of the week, last night, we were sitting in our apartment waiting for the Memorial Day celebrations to begin at the park, and we watched the fire works go off. It was a good 15-20 minutes of spectacular fun. I took some pictures of them too. On Tuesday, we had a short lesson with the Tagal's and brought Brother Cortez with us since he was former Catholic, so we started with that fellowship we have been meaning to start with. We also talked to sister Munoz on Wednesday night. She's doing okay after having some kind of surgery for her stomach. She might have shrunk it to get healthy again. I don't know. Her husband is a non-member. Nice guy. He's very supportive for his wife in her church. He agreed to continue reading the Book of Mormon with us whenever he's not busy in the evenings, so we will be texting him daily to see if we can go over. He already reads some of it with his wife. He doesn't ask questions, because she can't answer them all and she can go off subject very fast. On Thursday, we went to the Darby's with Brother Nate who lives in our complex. We didn't realize that the name he said was the same Darby's we went by just recently. We talked about Family Home Evening. They brought up the concern that they try to do it diligently weekly, but as they progress through it, the little girl that they have gets bored, which then distracts the kids and then the whole family, so the family agreed to have us over the next few Monday nights to get things through. They seem to behave more when they have guests/us over, so this might just work. We are working with the wife and son in getting them to warm up and someday be baptized and be completed as a family. Friday through Saturday, we had an exchange with the Zone Leaders, since our district leaders are distracted by their trunkiness. I led out the area with Elder Grover. (The shortest elder in the mission, but ripped.) We found 2 new investigators. One was Gene Tuaky. He wanted the missionary pamphlets and the 13 Articles of Faith. He wanted to know the difference between different religions, so he agreed to hear us again. He was a former investigator that I picked out to go see. The other was a girl named Angie. She, also investigated about 5 months ago in December but fell off the radar. She was having a yard sale along with her neighbor, so we kept it brief by showing her the Easter Video. She liked it, and she said to come back another day. Lastly, I gave a talk at church yesterday. Just out of the blue, Brother Bair, one of the bishop's councilors, asked me to give a talk on "Why I chose to go on a Mission." Everyone loved it so much. Here is a copy for you all to read. That's about it this week. Enjoy the talk and have a great week. By the way, this is my first talk for me to ever give on my mission. I was super excited. I whipped this out in just one hour. I felt very accomplished.Sincerely,Elder White. P.S. Marcia Baker made it to President Palmer's weekly letter to the mission. It takes something to get onto President's letter. I was pretty impressed how it all went down.

Why I chose to serve a mission

In the original Spider Man movie, Peter Parker, in a dream, talks to his deceased Uncle Ben in his car. His Uncle says: “With great power, comes great responsibility.”Peter then responses, “What am I supposed to do?” Peter, the man to be, who had great wisdom, even questioned himself on his purpose. This one point, that one choice of what Peter had to make would change his life forever! He defended New York City. When I remember this movie scene, it makes me remember what it was like for me to grow up in the church and grow in desire to serve a mission for the Lord as his representative. In Alma 32:27, it reads, “But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.” I have exercised faith in Jesus Christ to come out on a mission. The book of Proverbs also says to, “Trust in the lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.” I trust the lord knows what he is doing by allowing the weak and the simple to proclaim truth. I trust that he can teach me many things through the Holy Ghost. I wanted to better learn how to better use him in my life. I also wanted to understand what Paul, the Apostle, and what Moroni said about the Christlike attribute of charity. They said it was the pure love of Christ. What that meant back then, I do not know. The example that my grandma on my mom's side showed, I could only see the free stuff she gave us and wealth. I learned out here that it was more than that. She loved us as if we were her own beloved children. She saw our full potential. Though she did spoil us like what a true granny does, she loved us with a perfect heart. I bear witness in the power of mother's. Though the tears fall, though they see fighting amongst siblings, even pain from mortal wounds, they still cared. How much more does our Heavenly Father love us that he sent his only begotten son, even Jesus Christ to perform the atonement for us all? I speak as if my own mother was here. Thank you for loving me enough, to send me here. Continuing on what I mentioned first about great power, I also speak and bear testimony on the authority of the restored priesthood. Priesthood authority calls for certain requirements if the holder is to have and use it. Jesus taught in Luke 24 and 3 Nephi, “And that repentance and remission should be preached in his name among all nations...ye are witnesses of these things.” This verse comes to show that missionary work is expected by Jesus Christ, and ultimately his father, if we as a family of God want to all live with him again. I pray that all people may come and see, what the restored gospel of repentance really brings and that all people may feel Father's boundless love. The greatest Joy I feel out here in the California Modesto Mission, is when someone commits to follow Jesus Christ, take his name upon them, be baptized to seal the deal, and endure to the end. I thank you all for the privilege in allowing me to serve in the North-land Ward.I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

P.S. I also forgot to mention that I decided to space tape my bike to make it one solid color so it doesn't miss match. It's still a work in progress though. The other things was, in the mail, the Hyundai dealer sent out something in the mail for a tick-tack toe game prize, and I won a FREE I-PAD! I called and they said they there shouldn't be any catch and to just pick it up whenever, so I'm going to head down to Tracy in a little bit and deliver it to the mission office with Marcia's baptism form.

Dear family and everyone else, Breaking news! 'Marcia Diane Baker gets baptized.' She said at her baptism, "And it was a slam dunk." So it was Marcia, so it was. Brother Cortez went down with her, but her hair didn't submerge well enough, so he shoved her to the bottom (for the word slam). Then her foot popped out and went back down making sure she was fully under, and then he brought her back up (word for dunked). It was a little funny witnessing it all by the font doors. This time I blasted in the font for about 15 minutes with cold water, making sure it filled up in the right amount of time, and it worked. We didn't have any worries once the baptism began. We started about 10 minutes late, but that's Mormon standard time for ya. The Palmer's also arrived just in time when we were about to finish up taking pictures. It was well planned, and the spirit was felt. Brother Iver's, our ward mission leader, has Bell's Palsy on the right side of his face. He wasn't at the baptism because of it, so he literally cannot talk. I haven't seen him since he was saying his face was numb. I guess he got worse once he dropped us off one night at our apartment. Hopefully, he will recover quickly. Marcia, who was nurse, said it's rare to recover fully from something like that. Many people in the ward, and Marcia, have said that he talks a lot, but he has a lot of wise words to say anyways. He can be very helpful in getting things done in a discussion. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we helped out at the food bank (2nd Harvest) and the cemetery by digging up overgrown grass and putting in dirt. We also finished the new member lessons for Sharlene Fortuni before they move to the Ripon Ward. They just barely missed our boundary too, so we are losing an awesome family. Oh well. We did meet Marcia again last night because she wanted us to come over. We weren't expecting to see her until the next day, but we did have a good discussion about faith. She read Ether 12 and now we asked if she could read from the beginning of Ether. She agreed. She was so anxious about receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost that she couldn't sleep all that night. Now that she received it, she wants to better understand how to use this precious gift. We will do our best to continue to learn for ourselves and teach her what we know. The rest she will have to learn on her own.This was about it for this week. Have a great week everyone.Sincerely,Elder White Marcia's baptism

Family and everyone else, My parents just informed me that my second cousin will be coming into the new Modesto Mission 3 weeks from today. He is currently in the MTC. His name is Elder Brown. Let's hope this Elder Brown will be just as epic as my former companion from Colorado. Throughout this transfer, me and Elder Shepherd especially, have been feeling that I will be training in the next transfer. I don't know for sure. I certainly hope not. Yet I tell myself that I can do all things. Even after 15 months, I still feel like a new missionary. On Monday, we talked to Giovanni again in our complex. We talked about different stories in the Book of Mormon, and we left with him one of my favorite one's about the brother of Jared seeing the finger of God and then the whole spirit body of Jesus Christ/Jehovah. Also that day, the Ward's in are ward (funny right) were talking to us about the Geno Diet. It's a diet specifically for your body type. There is a whole book about it and everything. It asks about your blood type, what your fingerprint is like, height, mass, eye color, and so many other things to take into account. You then calculate your score and it shows what group you are in and what food your body processes best. Other foods could take longer, and you will feel awful and tired. I thought it was interesting. I just don't know my own blood type. One of these days, I will figure that out. On Tuesday through Wednesday, the Murray's in our complex asked us if we could take care of their dog for these two days. We counseled and we agreed. We ran the first morning with the dog called Dug, and we fed him, gave him treats, keep his water dish full, and took him to the dog park to play fetch periodically. It was okay. He is such a wild dog that doesn't seem to get tired very much. We also tried to keep him in the kitchen area but he kept hopping out, so we had no choice but to leave him in his kennel for 6 hours until they got back from a trip down in Los Angeles. They were very happy and we gained much more of their trust for whenever we may need them to help in the work. Elder Shepherd seems to be very tired lately. What happens is we both go to sleep at regular 10:30. He goes through one sleep cycle, (which is about 4 hours for him), and then wakes up at 2:00 and can't fall back asleep. The condition: Insomnia, but he works through it. He did tell me that last night, he woke up and decided to play Settler's of Catan. He played it so long that he did 2 games. He also decided to vacuum the entire apartment, including the sleeping room. He waited to do that when he knew for sure I was in my most extreme deep sleep, so he finished vacuuming in the middle of the night, and I didn't wake up once. I was amazed when he told me this. He also showed me how bad of a snore I have. It's bad. So bad that I was laughing when he imitated what I do. I try so hard to not snore, but every time he calls out, "Elder, wake up. Your snoring." Then, my brain decided to register and wake up. Lastly, he was tired enough, that he got one more hour of sleep. I feel really bad that he can't sleep. Some people just develop that kind of thing. He even tried melotonin a good sleep aid. Even that didn't work. He's still very perky in the middle of the day. Which is good. So, Marcia Baker is probably who you are just itching to here about right now. Well, her roommate decided he wanted to bring in his girl friend to stay to help pack for Marcia. She has a 5 year old son. She doesn't seem to make the best decisions. I won't say much before I start ranting negatively. Suffice to say, it complicated teaching Marcia. We are wrapping up our lessons before she gets baptized this coming Saturday at 4:00. She's excited. We are currently teaching the commandments of the church in lesson 4. She's gone over the restoration, plan of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the purpose of the temple, service, and the order of the priesthood. We taught Sharlene Fortuni lesson 5, and we went over some new pamphlets that the church released to the missionaries. It was a cool experience teaching out of the new pamphlets. It better helped explain what the endowment and sealing are, and what the temple looks like inside. On Friday, we practiced a lesson on a returning active girl named Secret Gonzalez. She knew the basic concepts of Joseph Smith. She just didn't remember the order of events, so we will better teach and focus on Joseph Smith so she can restrengthen her testimony in the prophet and her witness in him. I also forgot to mention that we did bring in the Eckle's to Marcia. It was a lovely meeting between the 3 of them. It was the first time I ever brought a whole couple into a lesson to anyone. Marcia loves meeting new people, and she invited them to her baptism before they went out to Utah for their nieces graduation. Lastly, we had a Stake Priesthood meeting last night before Stake Conference next month. It was interesting. One kid talked about Seminary, and I put his talk into perspective in going back to Institute when I get home. I love Institute. The spirit can be felt, friends will be made. Think of it, you can be spiritually fed too and take a break from the world for the day. The Stake President also called for repentance for anyone that needed it in case priesthood power could not be accessed due to uncleanliness. Overall, it was a good meeting.This is what happened this week.Sincerely,Elder White

Tyler's dad asked him some questions, and here are his answers: It's getting hot over here. 80's, and 90's all week until Friday. It will drop back down to 72. No big clouds though. The dry season is getting ready to begin. Just great. Well, one more summer heat and I'm home. My bike is doing just fine, though, I do be careful what back gears I use since the derailleur got bent throughthe crash. Other than that, the blue fork looks super cool. Now I wish my whole bike was blue. I'm thinking about buying duck Tape today whenever I find some and make the whole bike look black and less desirable to steal since it's California and all. With food, a pot of spaghetti can last me a whole week. I do my usual oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast. It's fast, easy, cheap, and somewhat nutritious. We do get fed quite often in the Northland Ward. It's nice, except for the vast distances just in the town part of our area. From our apartment, it takes about an hour just to bike to the church building. We do get rides instead.

Dear Family AND EVERYONE ELSE, Another Mother's Day has come and gone, and I was able to skype with my family. I was also able to see both my cats, Pepper and Mr. Tibsey this time. They have sure grown up since I have been gone. I was just super glad I could see them again. I thank Tibsey for coming in just in time to say hi. He's so friendly. If a new person comes in, he just walks up and rubs on your leg. Pepper, she just hides as soon as the bell rings. Oh well. My skype was quite joyful with my family. We had a two way selfie experience. At least the word selfie is in the dictionary now. Before I skyped, we had dinner with the Ivers'. We had Marcia Diane Baker there, our investigator, Sister White, and some of the Ivers' family. Marcia is on date for the 21st at 4:00 to be baptized. She's been off smoking for a strong 7 days now. She's doing great. The taste has gone bad for her, so she doesn't pick them up anymore, which is great if she wants to be baptized. We did try to plan to baptize her this Saturday, but Sister White was going out of town on Wednesday, so it didn't work out. It was back to the original date, Saturday the 21st. On Thursday, we had our monthly Zone Meeting. This time, I took everyone's picture within the Zone so none of you folks out there in Utah or whomever it be, don't miss out on my adventures. We had a good discussion on Moroni 7 about faith, hope, charity and love, along with how to judge righteously. It was quite beneficial to all who were there. It also solidified what I have learned in the last couple weeks in that chapter. Maria Johnson is getting married to Richard Cursay on Saturday. They let us know that they will only have family and very close friends, which is fine by me. This is a very special event and they should enjoy every moment of their day. Both their kids are fine with the marriage. They are a wonderful couple to be together. That's about it for this week. Keep pressing forward and enjoy to the end, because I still have 9 1/2 months suckers.Love you all friends and family,Elder White

Dear family and everyone else, Today, while I was shopping at Target, I noticed the movie, Mocking Jay part 2. Gosh I'm jealous of you all. I still have to wait a little less than 10 months before I get to see that final ending. There were two covers. They looked really cool. But back to the missionary work. I did get my bike repaired finally on Saturday. The bike shop ordered a blue fork with orange stripes only because they did not have black in stock. It's at least something. The bike shop also tightened my red cage that I bought for my water bottle. So now that doesn't wobble anymore and rattle while I ride. Lastly, I bought a new wheel since it was bent beyond repair, and the bar that holds the wheel on was slightly damaged before too. So now, my bike is almost completely new. I never knew that I would go through such extensive bike repairs on my mission. Elder Shepherd used the rest of his in store credit to pay for my repairs. We worked out a deal that I would return him the money that I owed him as I extract money from my personal account. On Monday night, we had a new member lesson with Sharlene Fortuni. She was baptized back in December before both of us got here. Juan who is her husband was a returning member and she was already living the gospel, so she was convinced to be baptized so they can be sealed this next December. Next, their son needs to get baptized. The goal is to soon friendship him, and gain his trust in us. Once we have that trust, we will start teaching him too. We will see how this goes, and we may someday complete a family just like when I helped finish the Rutherford's. We also taught another lesson with Maria Johnson and went over the 3rd lesson called the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It all makes sense to her so she never has questions for us. She is a solid member already. She just continues to learn, and relearn what she has come to know. Two Saturday's from now, she will be married to her fiance. It's getting exciting for them, and they are also jam-packing to get his house and property looking the best it can be before then. Marsha Baker has "taken control of her life." Last Monday, I gave her some stuff that was included in the stop smoking program, which includes: Vitamin C to clean out her body, cinnamon mouthwash and toothpaste, and cinnamon gum. The cinnamon stuff has started to change her body along with her prayers that the cigarettes no longer taste good to her, so that's a bonus for her too quite soon. It's confirmed that she will be evicted out of her apartment, but she is going to court to get the eviction off her record, because for one thing, she wasn't the problem. It was her ex-husband. He won't pay up his spousal support, and the court order is taking way too long for her to sue him. Also, her renter is super rude, greedy, and lazy. She tells us how bad he is. He's in his 60's. He intrudes without permission and brakes many renter's rights. She can get him good if she gets the chance, along with all the proof. The renter wanted to increase the price from 1100 to 1400, which she can't do on her own. Sister White continues to fellowship her, and Marsha was able to learn lessons 1-3 and parts of the commandments. She loves the lessons that we have to share with her. She is going to get baptized soon. She has seen the light and is starting to run toward the great Tree of Life and partake of the bright fruit of the gospel. On Wednesday, we had dinner with the Stake President again as a zone down in Tracy. It was Mexican again, but it was so good still. Thursday, we talked to Marianne finally after many weeks, and she looked better than when we last saw her. But she still has a long ways before she can be close to being healthy again. Friday, we talked to Paul and Melissa Zimmerman at the top part of our area right after dinner around the church. They were all drunk and smoking and it was not a good time. We did see that the wife was still very aware of things and made sure her little boy did not go playing in the street. We were wondering why we stayed there so long. Then we knew. A friend of their's was also hanging out with the Zimmerman's and asked us about why we held such good morals. I presented to him the word of wisdom in a brief minute or so. He understood and took the pamphlet to read. He was on parole with one of those tracker ankle bracelets. He may want to change his life around, so he listened to us. We did learn from the wife that they are not intoxicated on the weekdays, so we will go try again this week and help them out.These are the crazy things that happened this week. See you soon on skype. Happy Mother's Day to all!Sincerely,Elder White